The Woodstock Show.....A real Palma!

6167

6167

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I was at the Woodstock Show today and cruised around thinking I had seen everything.

There was a fellow there with two older wood stocked target rifles that I didn't really see in the early pass....a heavy barrel Remington, and a heavy barrel 1970's vintage Winchester Model 70....ok, nothing special....3 feet past his table it clicked that the Winchester was parked and has a Charging Bridge!
.....reason to throw out the anchor and go have a look.

Turns out it is a real Winchester Specialty Shop Model 70 Palma Issued for the 1976 Match set up for 190 grain with a 26" heavy barrel.
It is all parked/phosphate except the blued floor plate, trigger housing.
The military spec charging bridge was machined in to these to allow clip feeding in to the internal repeater magazine.

There were 140 of these made for the Match and the competitors were allowed to buy them when the match was over.....This is one of them.

It is engraved for the Match on the right hand side of the barrel as that Match at Camp Perry was the 100th Anniversary commemerative of the Palma shoots.

It is in awesome condition with a beautiful bore.

I would have walked right by if that charging bridge had not stuck out! Cheers Paul

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Nice.
Don't bother buying a lottery ticket for the next ten years, as you've exhausted your current luck 'rashion'.:D
 
So did you buy it? (I hope so!)

What a nice rifle. An excellent piece of history of the Palma Match (which will next be fired in Camp Perry in 2015, though nowadays competitors supply their own rifles and ammo). I hope you enjoy owning it and shooting it; please take care of it (and only take care of it, don't modify it!), and enjoy your own personal part of long range shooting history.

Did it come with the original sights? They were Redfield, which were actually pretty crappy (though for collector purposes you definitely want to have and keep them). The problem was that they had quite a bit of backlash in them, especially when wound up to the higher elevations needed for 800y, 900y, 1000y. The field expedient fix was to put a rubber band around them, to take out the backlash. A trick the Americans were more ahead of than the other visiting teams, who were less than amused by this quirk and took longer to figure out how to deal with it. I hear that in future years, British Palma Team members at formal dress occasions when Americans were know to be present would sometimes wear a rubber band around their tie.

The last time the Palma Match was fired with issued rifles was in Canada in 1982, when Omark "Sportco" rifles were supplied. There are a number of these still around so it's still possible to find one of these too. The Sportco is quite an accurate and useable rifle but not (in my opinion) as nice/pleasant/finished/refined a rifle to operate at the M70.

The 1982 Sportcos were supplied with Central sights, which were just fine, however the issued Sportcos had their own quirks and there was a way to get around that that the Canadians figured out earlier than the other teams. (Thankfully from 1988 onwards the match was fired with competitor-supplied rifles, so the match was determined more by shooting skill than adapting-on-the-spot to the quirks of an issued rifle which you've just received).
 
Thanks for the feedback......Ah yes....the famous Woodstock Bacon sandwiches!

The gentleman was aware that the last one sold in the US on the open market went for over $3000 and he needed a lot less for his rifle, so we made a deal and I said thanks!

I guess other people had been walking by it as the barrel length and contour did not jive with your typical early '70's Model 70 profile.

Before I stopped for the closer look I had quickly and wrongly assumed the barrel was a replacement target barrel, and what else wouldn't be right about it....until the charging bridge brought me back to take a better look.
I can only figure that a number of people may have discounted a second glance walking by as it was obviously not a "standard" rifle from the time period.
 
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6167 said:
The gentleman was aware that the last one sold in the US on the open market went for over $3000 and he needed to get about $1000 for his rifle, so we made a deal and I said thanks!
Click to expand...
Two thumbs up on that buy! That is the reality of gun shows. The more you know about guns the better your chances of finding a great deal.

No doubt assorted know-nothings wandered by that rifle and rolled their eyes at the price and having no idea what they were looking at come here afterwards to piss and moan about how all guns shows are ripoffs. :rolleyes:

Great buys and deals are out there at gun shows if you know your stuff.
 
Thanks for the detailed info Daniel!
Interesting story on the rubbber bands!

The rifle did not come with the iron sights but it has Unertl bases and standard scope mount configuration from the factory as well.
I have a choice of a ZF-69 C3 Kahles or a Unertl for scope....I will post results when completed.
 
6167
I also have one of the Winchester model 70 Palma Match 308win circa 1967, it also. Had the charger bridge, red field international peep sight set, all original.
It took along time to find out it was made for the Canadian Palma Team. The largest model 70 collector in the USA told me the history of this fine rifle!
They were shipped in wooden shipping crates, hand stop and international sight set. Funny thing he just needed a 1967 Palma to complete his Palma collection. Offered 3 times what I payed for it, but I could not part with it!
Shoots 155 Serria match kings very well , 168 Bergers look like they might do a might better? Need more time in load development next season to see what will work out best.
Glad to here there is another fellow owner of a true Palma Match rifle around!!!
Cheers Dale Z:)
 
Awesome Dale!
I don't have any match rounds lighter than 168 but I have about 5 different 168 varaiants to try when I get the scope on.
Norma, Federal Gold, Ruag, Remington etc....
I believe the rate of twist is 1/12".
 
I had a friend that shot on these Palma teams, but he has since passed away. I remember him telling me that a few of them did buy their rifles and had them brought back to Canada by the Winchester factory rep (also a Canadian team member). I can't recall the exact price but it was ridiculously low, less than $200. My friend set a Palma Record in the team event with that rifle, that has been unmatched since. At the time the match was 20 shots at 800, 900 and 1000. After that year they changed the match to 15 rounds at each range.
 
Nice find.
I have a non-Palma M70 National Match of the same vintage, with the original Redfield sights. Long receiver, rear bridge cut for charger loading. Using the sights must have been fun - eighth minute clicks, and no Vernier scale, as found on other sights.
It is accurate, but I have not fired it for quite some time.
Was the heavy Remington a 40X?
 
Awesome feedback with some nice stories about our guys competing at the time.

It must have been fun to attend the "gathering".

The other rifle on the table appeared to be a standard Remington 700 Varmint.
 
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